Clemson Extension
Nothing says “Southern” more than a big pot of butter beans or peas.
At one time, Lake City was considered the “Bean Capital of the World.” Bushels and bushels of snap beans were loaded onto rail cars and shipped to all the large Northern cities. This is why Lake City is the home of the National Historic Bean Market Museum. The Bean Market Museum is a true gem in the Pee Dee.
Not only do the folks at the Bean Market Museum preserve the past of how beans were marketed, sold, and shipped but they also encourage the future of the Pee Dee through community development and tourism.
Today, the Lake City area and the surrounding counties are still the bean capital of South Carolina but now instead of snap beans, it is butter beans and peas that have become the fresh market kings. Some snap beans are still being grown in our area, but the real demand is for butter beans and Dixie Lee Peas.
Butter beans and snap beans have become very difficult to grow in South Carolina’s heat and humidity. Growers were scrambling this past week to get butter beans in the ground before all this rain and to beat the summer heat. Don’t’ wait. As soon as the land dries out, plant.
When night temperatures stay above 75 degrees the flowers of beans do not pollinate properly, do not “set pods” and drop off the plant. This dropping of the flowers reduces yields and limits the bean production season to early spring and again in the fall for South Carolina.
What happens is that you can have a beautiful plant that is flowering-up-a-storm but never sets pods. The hot spell we had at the beginning of June last year pretty much destroyed our spring butter bean crop last year and the only people that had beans were those early planters. No matter what, our spring butter bean season will be short and very sparse. So, get prepared to get yours, get your name in the hat, and get your share
It has surprised me that the demand for fresh butter beans has remained high even in our fast-food society. In many years the demand far outweighs our production. So the moral of the story is to get your beans when they are available. Therefore, at my research area at Pee Dee Research & Education Center in Florence, I am increasing seed of seven new heat-tolerate varieties that I have selected. Hopefully, in a year or two we will have some heat-tolerant varieties to help with these supply problems. Also, I am screening varieties of snap beans for heat tolerance — hopefully some exists.
Also, many folks have compensated for flower drop in beans by switching to Southern peas in mid-summer. Peas love the heat, tolerate drought, and grow well with low fertility making them the perfect S.C. crop. However, the problem with fresh market peas is that they can be difficult to pick with mechanical harvesters. Some varieties like “Top Pick” and others are much easier to pick but most folks in our area demand the “Dixie Lee” variety because of its flavor, small seed size, and brown pot liquor (soup).
“Dixie Lee” is a vining variety, making it difficult to pick with machines, but if grown on low-fertility soil, with no fertilizer inputs, and no or little irrigation sometimes one can limit the plant size improving mechanical harvest. However, this practice reduces per acre yields, but most growers have sorry-almost-good-for-nothing fields that can make good pea land.
But there is a shortcut — just open a can. McCall Farms is canning superb Southern vegetables right here in Florence County. Already washed, cooked, and seasoned, they are sold under the brand names of Margaret Holmes, Glory, Bruce’s, Veg-all, Allen’s, etc., and only need to be heated and served.
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